Oscar Gonzalez drove in the go-ahead run with a two-out, 10th inning single and the visiting Cleveland Guardians stretched their winning streak to five games by downing the Detroit Tigers 4-3 on Thursday.
Enyel De Los Santos (3-0) got two outs after Detroit scored two runs in the ninth and collected the win. Bryan Shaw notched his first save.
Cleveland starter Zach Plesac tossed 6 1/3 innings, giving up one run and four hits while striking out seven. Sam Hentges struck out three in 1 1/3 innings of relief.
Cleveland increased its first-place lead over idle Minnesota to 1 1/2 games in the American League Central.
Steven Kwan hit a solo home run and Andres Gimenez scored two runs for the Guardians.
Javier Baez homered for the Tigers, while Willi Castro had three hits and scored a run. Starter Garrett Hill gave up three runs (one earned) and four hits in five innings.
The Tigers forced extra innings with two runs in the ninth but ultimately dropped their fourth straight contest.
Gregory Soto (2-7) retired the first two batters in the top of the 10th before Gonzalez smacked his RBI single.
The Guardians scored the game’s first run in the second on Baez’s throwing error.
Another fielding error, this time by third baseman Willi Castro, helped Cleveland score a run in the fourth. Gimenez was hit by a pitch with one out and an error on Gonzalez’s grounder allowed him to advance to second. After a fielder’s choice left runners on the corners, Luke Maile slapped a single to right to knock in Gimenez.
Kwan led off the fifth with his third homer this season, which landed in the right field seats.
Baez smacked his team-leading 11th homer with two out in the sixth to put Detroit on the board.
Harold Castro walked to lead off the ninth against Trevor Stephan. Willi Castro followed with a single and Jonathan Schoop ripped an RBI double. Kerry Carpenter struck out and Miguel Cabrera was intentionally walked.
De Los Santos relieved Stephan and Eric Haase hit into a fielder’s choice as Willi Castro scored the tying run.
–Field Level Media
